


Before the storm

by yozenfrogurt



Category: Mother 2: Gyiyg no Gyakushuu | EarthBound
Genre: F/M, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, comments are appreciated!, i guess, i'm completely new to this so don't know how this goes really, there's just...a lot of talking i guess this would count as a character study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-31 18:23:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21450685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yozenfrogurt/pseuds/yozenfrogurt
Summary: The threat of Giygas looms closer than ever. The Chosen Four board the Phase Distorter first thing tomorrow morning. Ness is taking it like a champ. Sort of.
Relationships: Ness/Paula Polestar
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	Before the storm

The door opened a crack, and late-afternoon sunlight spilled into the house, bouncing off the curves and corners of the walls, the strange architecture that somehow fit the Mr.'s Saturn perfectly. Paula poked her head in--the Mr. Saturn that ran the inn was out with all the others, she knew that, but to not see the little thing waddle up to greet her was a bit surreal.  


She knocked on the doorframe, barely tall enough for her to walk through without ducking. "Ness?"

When she received no response, she pushed open the door and stepped in. There was a lump in one of the beds that the four of them had stayed in--a lump with tousled black hair poking out from under a red cap.  


"Ness," she said, a little louder, "are you--"  


He scrambled out from under the covers, eyes wide. "Already?!"  


"Ah--no, no. Remember? We're going tomorrow morning." Paula stepped gingerly forwards. When he showed no reaction, she padded across the room to sit at the foot of the bed. Only when she had smoothed out her skirt and set a hand on his shoulder did he sigh and flop back down onto the mattress.  


He looked absolutely exhausted. He had lost weight over the course of the adventure, of course, but right now his face looked absolutely sallow. Paula reached out and straightened his cap, and he smiled wearily, nervously.  


_He was breathing hard, and smiling. One side of his face was splattered with blue paint. Paula wasn't expecting him to be quite so...short. Or chubby. But as he fumbled with the key in the lock, he looked up, and their eyes met. The warmth that she had felt in her flashes of clairvoyance was the very same. As the lock fell and the door swung open, Paula reached out and straightened his cap. His mouth formed an O, and he giggled sheepishly, tucking the sweat-damp curls under the brim.  
_

_He rubbed the stars and the tears from his eyes. Paula could hardly tell what he was doing in the first place, the room was so dark. She closed her eyes. A small scuffle, footsteps, the jiggling of a doorknob that was undoubtedly locked. There was a name that tugged at the edge of her mind, and the room seemed to undulate. Ness sat down beside her again, and she glanced at him. Before the clairvoyance stole her focus away from the world, before she collected her thoughts to pray, Paula reached out and straightened his cap. He looked at her, curious. She closed her eyes.  
_

_The Kraken gurgled and fell into the ocean, bubbles spilling up from its mouth before its head disappeared beneath the waves entirely. Sea spray washed over her, hair falling from her bow in tangled locks. She laughed aloud; Poo smiled beside her and closed his eyes. The telltale glow of healing shone from his palms, from beneath his eyelids. A whoop from across the deck--Ness was sprinting her way, one hand clutching his back and one hand towing poor Jeff along, who was stumbling in his wake. When he reached her, he let go of Jeff and gathered her into a hug, full and warm. He smelled like sweat and salt and the shampoo from the Summers hotel. When he pulled back, his cheeks were red, as if he had just registered what he was doing. Paula reached out and straightened his cap, and he released her from the embrace, chuckling nervously. His hand still held onto hers.  
_

"Do you want to talk about it?"  


"No, I--yes--I...I don't know," he said, and buried his head in his hands.  


Paula waited.  


"I'm scared, Paula." His voice was low, thin and steady. It took her aback. Ness was the first to cry in any given situation--fear, joy, sorrow. For himself, but mostly for others. He empathized, he experienced emotion so vibrantly that she'd swear that he felt them in colors that people didn't have names for. "This feels too real. I--we knew about Giygas. He's the cosmic destroyer, or whatever. And we're gonna fight him. In robot bodies, because we'd die if we went through without them. Gah." He shook his head. "It's bonkers, you know? I keep thinking about...when I met you, and Jeff, and Poo. Remember when me and you pulled into Threed with the Runaway Five, and you were looking out the window, and then we started drawing stuff with the fog from our breaths...and remember when we saw Poo eat Mach Pizza for the first time? I can't believe he ate another slice after the first."  


He laughed despite himself, and kept rambling. "And the sewers…Jeff spent thirty minutes in the shower after that. Honestly, I think he cried a little down there. Have you ever stayed up late to watch him work? It drove me nuts the first night he did it, but now...I can't imagine going to sleep without hearing the clinking." He sighed. "I...dunno where I'm going with this."  


"It doesn't feel like the end to me, Ness." He turned, and Paula was fiddling with her thumbs. "It's going to be hard, but we've made it this far."  


"That's the thing. All this time--our entire journey, it's been…"  


"Fun?"  


"That too, but...more than that. I felt...hopeful. Like I could just swing my bat a little faster, and hope a little harder, and you guys would be there, right next to me, and everything turned out OK."  


"We'll still be there, Ness."  


He drew his knees into his chest. "...Does your clairvoyance say anything about this?"  


She didn't even need to close her eyes. She had sought the answer out long ago. "All I know is that we need to go. And it will be scary." She shifted her legs. "And...I'm not sure, but I think we'll see Porky there, too."  


"Figures." Paula cocked her head. The venom that usually accompanied his voice when he talked about Porky was absent--it was really one of the only things he got heated about. "...I saw him in my Magicant, did I tell you that?"  


"No."  


"He was sitting on his couch…" The two of them had scooted so that they were facing each other, cross-legged, in the dimming light. "I didn't know what he was doing there, but then he started talking about how lucky I was. And how he wanted to be friends. I think...I don't want to hate him. Even though he makes it really, really easy. He was always a bully, 'specially to Picky, but…"  


Ness fumbled over the words.  


"He was right. I am lucky."  


Paula curled her fingers into a loose fist, nails just barely brushing her palm. "...So what if you were?"  


"H-huh?"  


"That doesn't change who you are. Or who he is, or who he was. Not really. And it would hardly change where we are now."  


Ness looked down. She continued. "We're here because of all of us, but especially because of you. Because you were kind, and strong. I don't think there's anything I can say to reassure you, really. Except that whatever happens, we'll all be there together for it."  


He was still for a while. Paula was starting to worry that she had said something wrong, or been too forward, or done something…  


"Ness?"  


Without warning, he flung his arms around her, burying his face into her shoulder. She barely hesitated before hugging him back, squeezing him tight. They clung to each other, breathing into each others' clothes, each clutching on to the other like their lives depended on it.  


She let him hug as long as he needed to. When he pulled back, the cotton on her sleeve was dark with moisture.  


"Feeling better?"  


"I don't know what I'd do without you," he said softly. "I really don't."  


He cupped a hand around hers. She whipped her head up to look at him, cheeks darkening, and he stuttered and shoved his hands back into his lap.  


"Sorry--I--"  


Paula couldn't help it--her face broke into a glowing smile, and to Ness it seemed like it lit up the whole room, darkening in the fading dusk. "Come on, Ness."  


Their fingers knotted together--clumsy, unpracticed. The shadows grew longer, and they sat side by side, eyes shut, leaning into each other.

**Author's Note:**

> WHEW  
thanks for reading if ur here. this is my first fic i've uploaded online, and truthfully the first one i've seen to a half-decent conclusion.
> 
> it's in the nature of this sort of introspective fill-in-the-blanks sort of fic, but the headcanon is strong in this one. i feel like paula is the one that has undergone the most change throughout the game. it feels a little to me like she's grown into her powers, that the vision that she possesses through clairvoyance has kinda been translated into clarity of sight in her personal relationships, as well as breadth of knowledge about the world. ness has grown too, but i always thought of his arc having this running theme of his inherent kindness and trust, which he realizes is a valuable part of himself and not just something that he's been spoiled sweet into. and at the same time he's become stronger while still staying dependent on others, because his relationships are an important part of his sense of self. they have some ship tease in canon, but i kind of wanted to explore their relationship, platonic or otherwise, a little more, as well as the jarring shift in tone between the final battle and the rest of the game. idk. i know i'm reading way WAY too much into this but like...it's v good  
if i'm feeling up to it, i might write another part or so with jeff and poo.


End file.
